


Something Like Home

by SttatusQuo



Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 03:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9157732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SttatusQuo/pseuds/SttatusQuo
Summary: Caine gets his wings back and has time to consider his circumstances.





	

Having wings replaced was worse than the initial attachment. Beneath the scars were the remnants of the first placement and all the severed neurons had to be identified and repaired or replaced. Because he had to be awake so that his brain could be properly mapped for the neurons he felt everything. Everything. When they were initially cut and then torn from his back it had been all at once and the shock of that much pain had numbed him some. This was hours of lucid pain every single nerve being tested, the scarred or damaged bits being trimmed out and then re-spliced to the appropriate connection. It was a relief when they finally put him under to do the muscle work. He had cried out twice and vomited once early on- spending the rest of the time on emotional lock-down as he shuddered in fine tremors and dripped sweat so profusely that they stopped to put in an IV to keep him hydrated.

When the machines were done they let him rest-floating in the beams as he healed with the help of the Regenex applied as part of the neural reintegration as well as for its healing properties. He vaguely remembered being asked to move his wings and feeling nothing as they followed the brain waves to their destinations in the wing circuitry. Before sleep claimed him he wondered what Jupiter would think when she saw his wings. In the Deadlands, the times he had secured enough safety to sleep deeply he dreamed of flying often- waking to the reality of their loss was a fresh devastation every time. Part of him wanted to fight the sleep just in case getting them restored had been a cruel dream. The habit of expecting nothing but  
He woke floating in one of the anti-gravity fields. The synaptic connections weren’t completely mature so his wings were still strapped to him in the neutral position they were attached as so that they would heal. He could feel the brush of the primary flight feathers against his calves when he bent his knees. “Hello?” he said to alert the chamber presence as he stretched and rolled his shoulders-reveling in the feel of having them back.

“How may I assist you?” said the efficient electronic voice. The legion didn’t waste money on pleasantries.

“How long until I can leave?” he asked. The searing smells of adrenaline, illness, blood, and death were beginning to seal themselves into his nose. No matter how much they scrubbed the air at these facilities they never quite got it all as far as he was concerned. It bothered all lycantants or any splice with a overly-sensitive nose- Caine more than most.

“Wing restraints are slated to be removed in four hours, sixteen minutes and 57 seconds, Ores standard. This will be followed by 36 hours of physical therapy and then flight check off before scheduled departure in thirty-two hours…”

“Thank you,” he snapped cutting off the voice and wondering how he’d fill the next four hours. Training and experience prompting him, he closed his eyes and went back to sleep because the soldier in him knew he should sleep when he could. After his years in the Badlands he knew safe sleep was an important commodity. Still it wasn’t like him to sleep this much and he put it down to the after effects of the drugs. 

Unconcerned with his safety at this point, his mind wandered back to the final orbits of the Aegis ship around earth as Her Majesty’s home was repaired and proper time to return her family as well as her Majesty approached. 

Satisfied that her family was all right (better than all right, really, the doctor had used some small doses of Regenex on the older members until Captain Tsing walked in as he finished with her cousin Valadie) Jupiter retired to her cabin to rest much to the relief of the crew. Her haggard appearance and certain belief that everything was all her fault troubled everyone on board. Caine relieved Stinger outside her door- as an Entitled and a Royal one at that- protocol demanded that she be guarded at all times when not on her own ship. Had there been actual Legion available he and Stinger would have yielded that duty. 

Captain Tsing had looked them over and assigned them to the guard roster smoothly adding that since they were both pardoned that she considered them _de facto_ Legion even if they weren’t currently on the active roster. “You do both have to get checked out by medical, have a meal, and get some rest before you can stand guard, though,” she said with warm eyes and a stern voice, “Can’t have either of you falling asleep on duty.” That brought both of their heads up sharply as a soft but involuntary growl slid past Caine’s lips. Tsing’s near-invisible smile, as she nodded them at them both “Marshall Alpini, Mr. Wise”, told them both she was teasing them as much as anyone ever dared with a Skyjacker.

Caine had some imbedded shrapnel that required removal so Stinger took the first watch after a quick sleep. After a meal and a quick clean up Caine lay down on his bunk but couldn’t sleep. The clothes that he had folded at the foot of the bunk smelled overwhelmingly of Jupiter. He should have shoved them in the cleaner but part of him couldn’t bear to part with anything to do with her. The scent flirted with him- keeping him awake and urging him to go find her even if all he would do is stand outside her door. Fifteen minutes later he decided that trying to go to sleep was the same as sleeping for all the actual good it did him and rolled out of the bunk. Suiting up, he grabbed his weapons and left the cabin at a jog.

Stinger smiled when he appeared. “I was thinking I’d see you half an hour ago, boy. All she’s done in there is pace for the last hour. I thought I heard the bed creak once but she was up again in ten minutes and wearing a hole in the deck again.” Caine nodded and assumed his stance beside Jupiter’s door. 

“This one,” Stinger said as he nodded at the synthetic guard on the other side of the door, “isn’t much of a talker. I’m going to go see if I can call Kiza and see how she is. Hit your com if you need anything.” 

Caine nodded again and began his wait for potential trouble. Through the door he could easily hear Jupiter pacing back and forth for another four hundred and twelve steps before the bunk creaked again. She tossed and turned a couple of times and then was still. Within a few minutes he heard her breathing change and knew she was asleep. 

The next two hours passed uneventfully. Caine, unused to the routine noises of the ship, reacted to every new noise, scent, and air current in the hallway. 

The first hint of distress was the quietly desperate “No” that filtered through the door. Caine’s hand was already on his weapon when her terrorized scream pierced the air and his heart. By the time the gun was out he was through the door and looking around the room for trouble and finding no immediate threat.

Jupiter’s heart was thundering in his ears from her distress at what must have been a nightmare as well as waking to find Caine in her room so abruptly. She scrambled back to the corner of the bunk taking the covers with her.

“Are you all right, Your Majesty?” Caine asked quietly as the door hissed quietly shut behind him.

“Yes,” she said too quickly for it to be true. “No,” her voice broke as she said it, “I’m so sorry. I had a dream that Balem killed my mother and made me watch. He… he almost did that to her when I was down there. It was… awful… I mean I had her blood on my hands.” She unclenched her hands from the covers and stared at them as if she could still see the blood on them.

Caine holstered his weapon and listened to the hammering of her heart.

Jupiter wrapped her arms around her middle and leaned forward. “I can’t stop shaking.”

“It is the adrenaline…” Caine started as he quickly searched the protocols he had memorized- coming up empty on what to do when faced with a Queen in distress. Out of anything helpful to say he stood there staring at the wall until he might be needed – saving Jupiter’s life had been his privilege but to offer comfort was to offer an intimacy that would have been inappropriate from a Splice to a human, especially an Entitled.

Jupiter looked up at him. “Quit looming and come sit down,” she said and patted the bed beside her. He sat and immediately she leaned against him putting one hand on his chest. Now it was his heart’s turn to beat faster. “Mmmm…” she whispered, “You’re so warm.”

“So tired…” she muttered before she turned and crawled into the middle of the bed.

“Caine?”

“Yes, your Majesty?”

“Will you just lie down with me and hold me for a while? Maybe I can stop seeing Balem go off the edge of that platform. I have to get some sleep or my family will know something's wrong with me.”

Caine stood up. “I’ll let the guard outside know I won’t be out for a while. There won’t be any judgment from an android. “

“Do you think I care what anyone thinks?” she muttered.

Caine gave the information to the android that he would be guarding from the interior of the room and returned to the room. Jupiter was already against the wall of the built in bunk huddled under the covers as if they could protect her from the evil of the ‘verse. Caine crawled on to the strip of bed she left for him glad that he could lay on his left side so he could reach the Mauler easily. As he lay there, rigidly, unsure of what to do Jupiter scooted back against him and he found himself instinctively curling around her for both comfort and protection. She was still shaking and the adrenaline in her system was a sting in his nose.

Jupiter reached an arm out of the covers and felt around for his arm, dragging it across her waist. “Thank you,” she exhaled. “I just need to feel someone close.”

Caine knew better than most about that need. He had spent more than two decades holding it by the throat at arm’s length. Until he met Jupiter he had convinced himself that he had squeezed all the life out of it- disintegrating it to blow away like ashes in the wind. The closeness and warmth of her body as he lay there was like rain in the desert and he could feel the ice he had locked himself away behind thaw even further than it had since she was first in his arms at the clinic. Every crack in the armor was linked to a moment he remembered: On the ship to Ores when she'd blurted out that she had always loved dogs. The way she'd stepped into his personal space, trusting him completely in spite of his reputation as a killer. The way she'd clung to him after he saved her on Jupiter before asking about her family. Caine wanted to lie there with her like this forever and breathe her in until she was in every fiber of him. Her hair tickled his nose with every breath but no way would he ever dream of moving it away.

“Caine?” jupiter said dreamily as she sank into sleep.

“Yes, your Majesty?”

“I meant that kiss on Jupiter.” 

Didn't that just make him smile and his arm tighten gently as it rested across her in the briefest of hugs.

\---

Caine woke abruptly as the straps beeped and fell away. Rotating in the antigravity field he stepped out and felt the first weight of them for the second time. The room presence droned on about how to use the fasteners on the clothing designed to accommodate wings as well as warnings about not attempting to use them until directed to do so. A uniform awaited him along with his weapons and boots. There were no mirrors in the Legion’s facility so he had no idea of how he looked as he pulled the sleeveless Skyjacker uniform and felt it fall around his wings. Reveling in the feel of fabric against wing he picked up his new jacket, locked his wings tightly behind him, and jogged to physical therapy. 

He wasn’t placed in with the recruits that had gotten their first wings. This was rehab for experienced Skyjackers who had lost wings in battle or in the rare circumstances like Caine’s were getting them back.

His assignment was FC-3, the largest of the flight check rooms which pleased him. A technician met him for a physical check to be sure he was healed. He moved his wings as ordered pleased that his old reflexes responded perfectly. They were larger but not perceptibly heavier than before with extra alular feathers at the apex to help with both agility and deceleration. The color was different. A darker brown with some amber interspersed in the secondaries and the glint of bronze and gold throughout. He looked at the technician. “These are the current standard issue for your ranking and group. Your last set on record is no longer issued.”

Boots announced the approach of another Skyjacker and Caine straightened up- pulling his wings in and up. “Officer on deck,” said the technician, coming to attention. Caine snapped to attention hard-pressed not to smile at his body feeling whole again. Fun time was over.

The flight officer put him through rigorous paces to test his abilities and let him get used to flying again. They’d started with a half-gravity environment and gradually increased it as he and the others got used to it. They’d used Regenex, which he regretted for Jupiter’s sake but there was no way he would heal in less than ten or twelve weeks without it. Improved aerodynamics increased his speed and within the day he was using them as if they-and a significant portion of his life- had never left. 

Reinstatement meant back wages so Caine went to the commissary and bought new clothes, including a coat specially designed to make the bulk of folded wings inconspicuous. Checking his account before the purchase, he was astonished at the amount of money he had. 

Returning to headquarters he received his posting and was relieved to find that Commander Apini had specifically requested him for duty on Earth for the newly forming Legion guard for the recently ascended recurrence of Seraphi Abrasax. The crackle on electronic seal of the sheave with his orders was still dying down as Caine pelted down the hallway to the barracks and grabbed his kit. He had 20 minutes to board the transport or wait until tomorrow. Under other circumstances he would have waited but he was anxious to get back to Earth. Stinger was in the queue to board as well, with wings reinstated and a quiet glow of pride. Somehow they managed a cabin to themselves and when Caine looked a question at Stinger all his new CO did was mutter “Rank hath its privileges”. 

As far as he was concerned at this point, Caine didn’t think his life could get any better.

**Author's Note:**

> Not my characters. Not my Universe.  
> Just words for my own enjoyment and hopefully a few others.


End file.
